Farage receives second £36m donation in two days for Reform

[Greyrock79]

Farage receives second £36m donation in two days.

Reform’s biggest donor Christopher Harborne matched record donation given on Friday by fellow cryptocurrency billionaire Ben Delo

I don’t know them but I imagine these people found being deported back to Britain because of Brexit pretty awful. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/05/sweden-britons-deportations-brexit

They were deported because of Sweden though?

Yes, your question was the worst thing to happen to someone because of Brexit. Did you mean the worst thing to happen to someone already living in the UK?

Are you trying to deflect from my question by asking one of your own?

Anyway, I've already said that I don't think this is about individual tales of woe, but in answer to your question, I would probably say the former colleague who was made redundant at the same time as me and subsequently lost his home as a result.

But the point is, we are not talking about individual sob stories but about the impact on a whole economy. For the vast majority of people, the damage done by Brexit won't be experienced in isolation, because that simply isn't how economies work. The damage done by Brexit will instead be layered on top of many other other factors - it won't necessarily have caused all of the problems that people may be facing, but it will have undoubtedly made things worse because the whole economy is smaller.

So I will ask the question one more time. Are you disputing the broad economic consensus that Brexit has made our economy significantly smaller, and if so, on what basis?

Or are you suggesting that the economy being smaller makes no difference to the lives of ordinary British people? And if so, can you explain your rationale for this?

The Anyone But Labour vote is much less pronounced than the Anyone But Farage vote. Reform know there is an issue of increased target voting to keep them out.

Changing the law = fine.
Retrospectively changing the law = not fine.

I haven't read much on the detail but the March date referred to by Rayner - that isn't retrospective if explicitly discussed in the legislation process? Because Farage has always been fully aware of the ongoing process.

I'm going to have to read more about this as expect it will be discussed a lot going forwards!

Anyone but Labour aren't as vocal though, I'm one but don't make a big thing of it or post much about it.

The academic opinions, opinion polling and observed behaviour patterns are clear - there is more anti-Reform voting behaviour.

That’s a fair point - but the evidence from by-elections shows the anti-Reform is not just online noise and people talking about it, it’s strong in practice too. In both Gorton and Denton and Makerfield, it’s clear the broader electorate were happy to consolidate heavily against Reform.

I think electorally Reform are in a very tight spot - they clearly have a core of incredibly strong support who won’t abandon them no matter what, but they’re struggling to connect beyond that, and at the same time, the optics of things like these donations further harden the tactical vote against them.

🤣 That really made me laugh.

The "anyone but Labour" brigade are very vocal about it, and they certainly do like to make a big deal of it. Of course, they are free to be as vocal as they like, but it is laughable to suggest that they don't enthusiastically exercise that freedom.

Exactly this. The March backdate is because that is when the Rycroft report was published.

There was always going to be a backdate on these changes as a safeguard to prevent wealthy donors - who’d until very recently been residing overseas - from rushing to dump money into political parties before the legislation formally receiving Royal Assent.

The legislation is in line with the Rees Principles: the government gave a clear warning, targeted a specific loophole, and published the draft mechanics early.

65 million from unions is made up from individual collections from Union members who opt in. Very different from 65 million from a single person who until recently was a non UK resident and a convicted criminal.

We are far too soft, Farage and his crew should have been arrested and locked up years ago. These criminals are running rings around our democracy.

The pro Labour are very vocal. And in the past have gone on about bots etc if it’s views they don’t want to see.

Do you think they're the same people as the ones terrified to express their concerns about immigration? Between you amd me, I have heard that people secretly want to stop the bosts but aren't allowed to talk about it. That's why no one ever mentions it. I'll probably get deleted by the lefties for saying this.

Give it time.

Labour are in government and people are feeling the pain, every day. It’s Labour’s to own.

😂

Well, Labour excel at the u-turn, so anything is possible.

It will not be a risk-free move for them, however.

The juvenile laughing emoji does you no favours.

Yes will remain interested in opinion polling going forwards.

It's been interesting to observe support for Reform drop over the last year, and the anti-Reform tactical voting emerge.

Who knows what will happen in future? Reform themselves are discussing these concerns internally. The number of constituencies they need to win from a standing start is very high, practically-speaking how do they appeal to red and blue voters simultaneously?

I won’t miss those when Labour goes down the gurgler, taking emojis with them.

This kind of thing does not help Labour escape the ‘welfare party’ label.

Benefit claimants could be spared sanctions for first breaches of welfare rules under a softer sanctions regime being tested by Labour.

Under the current system, jobseekers must prove they are actively looking for work and can have their benefits cut if they fail to turn up to job centre appointments.

However Neil Couling, a senior civil servant at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has said the Government is moving towards an approach which targets sanctions at people who repeatedly fail to attend appointments.

In evidence to MPs seen by The Times, Mr Couling said: “The kind of policy direction we are moving in is looking at repeated non-compliance rather than first offences getting a sanction”.

As you say it's not just the tactical voters who are a problem for Reform - there is also the persistent downward trend in intention to vote for them - over many months with many different co

Focus groups exploring this trend point to concerns in the Reform base about Farage's leadership and in particular his £5 million 'gift' and other alleged financial irregularities

A similar downward trend has also been evident for the Greens - again focussing on Polanskis leadership/popularity

This would make sense, to target resources and energy at those who are either deliberately non-compliant or genuinely struggling.

The DWP waste a lot of time and money being performative. It'd be good if some commonsense could return to the system.

I go on about bots but it's not because it's views I don't want to see. It's because of some discussions where ridiculous numbers- like hundreds- of laughing emojis suddenly appear out of nowhere and when you look at the names they are not names.
And likewise you can tell in some discussions it's programmed comments. IDK if actual.people or computer generated but the phrasing is off and pretence of not being articulate ( as opposed to really struggling with writing)
It tends to be right wing views I believe theres a group of people or a machine somewhere
Infiltrated the trans debate. Infiltrated the anti semitism debate. Caused people to polarise.